Florescence
by Lynse
Summary: Danny keeps insisting that it's just a cold. That it's just a sunburn. Except it isn't, and he's getting worse. One-shot. Written for Phic Phight 2019.


A/N: Written for Phic Phight 2019 and based off a prompt by Bouhoue: _Maddie decides to plant some new flowers in the garden... (blood blossoms)_. Standard disclaimers apply.

* * *

Danny reached for the refrigerator door, paused to sneeze, and Jazz looked up from her spot at the table. "Are you getting sick?" she asked suspiciously. She had some big test coming up—the piles of papers and mounds of books in front of her attested to that much—and, in all her studying, she'd actually stopped hovering over him.

Until now, apparently.

It had been nice while it'd lasted.

Danny wiped his nose on his arm. "I'm fine."

Jazz's eyes narrowed. "You were sneezing at breakfast, too. And at supper last night."

"So maybe I'm allergic to the latest mutation in our food," Danny said dryly, "and I'll be fine once Mom and Dad throw out their latest accidental science experiments."

That was obviously the wrong thing to say, as Jazz slid a paper into the book she'd been reading and closed it before getting up to look at him more closely. "You've never been allergic to anything before. What if this is…_you know_?"

Danny rolled his eyes. "No one I've fought is sick. They want to fight me when _I'm _sick, not when they're sick."

Jazz pursed her lips and, miracle of miracles, let the subject drop.

Danny thought that would be the end of it.

He was wrong.

* * *

Two weeks later, Danny was still sniffling and had a rash he couldn't hide. It…hurt, a bit. Not bad, especially not compared to the injuries he'd gotten avoiding and subsequently trapping Skulker at school a couple days before, but it was like a bad sunburn.

Jazz didn't seem especially convinced it _was_ a sunburn, despite that being Danny's proffered explanation. _She_ said he'd been getting worse over the course of the week, that she'd wondered about it a few days ago. She thought it was getting worse.

Danny might have protested if Sam hadn't said the same thing at school today when she'd caught him grimacing after grabbing his backpack from his locker.

"Are you coming down with something, sweetie?" Maddie asked, catching him before he had a chance to leave the table at supper that night. "You don't look very good."

"I'm fine," he said automatically.

"Are you sure? I've a better eye for ecto-diseases, but I can take a look at it. You might need to go to the doctor."

"I'm fine!" Danny insisted, edging away. If this _was_ some kind of ecto-disease, he didn't want her to realize it. She wouldn't put two and two together just with that—Sam and Tuck had caught ecto-acne from Vlad, after all—but he didn't want the house under quarantine. Again.

She didn't look convinced.

He was lucky Jazz had gone up to her room and Jack had gone down to the lab so there was no one left to agree with her. He was stuck on dish duty tonight, courtesy of yesterday's detention for falling asleep in class, so he hadn't had a chance to escape. Too bad his mom had stayed long enough to open the kitchen window to let in some fresh air. Unless she'd planned this ambush from the beginning, which he wouldn't put past her.

His parents could be really oblivious, right up until they weren't, at a very inconvenient time for him.

"It's just a sunburn," he said, ducking around her to drop his plate in the sink. He felt a tickle in his throat and started to cough, but it didn't go away, then it started to burn, and—

Maddie grabbed his arm and dragged him to the bathroom. He didn't know when she'd filled a glass of water, but she put one into his hands and helped him drink. It _burned_, all the way down, and his watering eyes weren't doing anything to take away the sting in them, either, no matter how much he blinked, and—

"Keep drinking, sweetie," Maddie murmured, but now it felt like he'd swallowed one of Skulker's rotating blades and it was trying to cut his stomach to pieces.

He groaned, and while Maddie was digging for something in the cupboard, he lunged for the toilet and retched.

"You're not fine," Maddie said quietly when he'd finished. She handed him another glass of tap water. "Swish your mouth out; you'll feel better."

He did as he was told, and she was right, marginally.

"You're staying home from school tomorrow," she continued, "and then we'll see how you're feeling. It might just be a twenty-four-hour bug."

Danny didn't argue. He doubted she'd drag him to the doctor, anyway. By this time tomorrow, she'd either think this was an ecto-disease, something viral but not dangerous enough that he needed to be hooked up to some kind of fluid, or some kind of minor bacterial thing that they'd address if it got worse instead of better.

Because, okay, fine, it _wasn't_ just a sunburn, but he was feeling better already. And maybe it was just a cold. And if he got a legitimate sick day—not that his teachers would know the difference; Danny had lost track of the number of notes Sam had forged for him and the number of times he'd had to overshadow his dad to smooth things over with the school—he might actually be able to catch up on some sleep.

Ha.

Wishful thinking.

With his luck, the Box Ghost would show up. And then Skulker. And then Cujo.

Maddie handed him a tube of cream. "Put this on once you're ready for bed. It should help with your rash."

Danny squinted at it. "Anti-itch stuff?"

"You're scratching," she said, even though he couldn't remember doing that. "We can try vitamin E and aloe vera in the morning and see if anything helps. For now, go to bed early and try to get some sleep. You look exhausted."

He felt exhausted.

And the tickle in his throat was back. Not that it had ever really gone away, but it was more noticeable again. He tried to ignore it, opting to nod his head and squeak out something about brushing his teeth without taking a breath. He managed to wait until Maddie had left the bathroom before closing the door and giving in, but he coughed until his chest ached, and he knew there was no way she'd missed hearing that.

But as Danny looked down on the red-splattered white of the sink, he was glad she wasn't here to see it, too.

* * *

When Danny woke, it wasn't from the sudden chill that was his ghost sense. Instead, his entire body burned. His pajamas felt like they were made of sandpaper, and every tiny movement had it scraping across his skin. His mouth was dry, it was hard to breathe, and the longer he lay there, the more he felt his pounding pulse in his head, and—

He flickered intangible, intending just to let the sheet drop through him but floating so he didn't drop through the bed, but the pain spiked in an instant. He lost control and was screaming as he hit his floor. That was going to bring everyone running, and he knew he couldn't let them find him under his bed, but he couldn't help but whimper as he crawled out from beneath it. This was…. He didn't know what this was. Was it possible for your entire body to ache?

When he'd pulled himself free, Danny sat up and leaned with his head against the side of the bed. His chest was heaving, his head was spinning, and he had never been more thankful that the ghosts had decided to leave him alone for once. He wasn't in any condition to fight anyone.

It wasn't just a cold. Or a sunburn. Or anything normal like that.

Everything hurt.

Jazz was the first person to reach his room, dropping to her knees and putting a hand on his shoulder. He flinched away, and she didn't reach for him again. "Danny? Are you okay?"

He tried to shake his head, choked out a sob, and whispered, "No."

"Is…is this a ghost thing?"

She'd dropped her voice, but he had no trouble hearing her. "Maybe," he breathed. He genuinely didn't know the answer. "Just…call Vlad. He might know."

He must have looked as terrible as he felt, because Jazz didn't argue this point. "Okay, little brother," she said, getting to her feet as Jack and Maddie burst into the room with their weapons.

"The Fenton Finder isn't picking up anything but Danny," Jack muttered as Jazz slipped past them and flipped on his bedroom light for good measure. "I'll keep watch while you check on him."

Danny heard one of the weapons powering down, and then Maddie had taken Jazz's spot in front of him. Her hand was on his forehead. "You're burning up, sweetie," she said. "Jack, run and get him some water. I'll take care of any pesky ghosts that show up while you're gone."

"On it, baby!"

"I don't know what this is, Mom," Danny whispered. He must really be coming down with something, even though he couldn't remember being around anyone—humans or ghosts—who were sick. Even though he'd joked about it with Jazz, he didn't think he'd eaten anything that had done this.

If Jazz was right about the sniffling and the rash being connected, this had been going on for weeks. Even if he _had_ eaten something, it shouldn't still be affecting him. Not unless he'd contracted some kind of bacterial or viral thing, and a hospital was really the last thing he needed. He didn't know how his biology had changed, exactly, since he hadn't actually needed to go to a doctor since the accident—probably thanks to his healing abilities—but he was pretty sure it had.

Vlad had never mentioned anything, even though Danny knew he'd been hospitalized after his accident with the whole ecto-acne thing, but then again, Danny had never asked.

Jack returned with water and damp cloths, and Maddie began to fuss over him. Danny didn't fight her. He didn't have the energy to. Besides, the coolness felt nice, even if the rough cloth grated on his skin.

She untangled his sheets before helping him back into bed. "Try to rest," she advised, as if he hadn't just woken up. Then again, he didn't know what time it was, except that it was still dark. It was spring, and the days were definitely longer than they had been. Maybe it really was the middle of the night. "It's best you conserve your energy," continued Maddie. "I'll make that doctor's appointment for you in the morning."

"No," he croaked. "Not yet. It's not that bad."

He didn't need to turn his head and look at her to know that she was frowning. "You were screaming, sweetie."

"I had a bad dream." It was an easy lie. "A ghost attacked me."

"I'll make sure that doesn't happen, Danny-boy!" Jack promised immediately.

"Thanks, Dad," he murmured, closing his eyes. He was still tired, and lying down made the world spin less. Maybe it wouldn't be as hard to get back to sleep as he'd expected. And maybe Vlad's solution, since he probably had one, would be an easy one. Maybe he was just needed some kind of ghost vitamin supplement or whatever, and all of this would go away. Maybe….

* * *

Vlad jerked when the shrill ring of the telephone cut through his dream, making it vanish before he could properly remember what it had been about. Maddie meowed in protest when he moved, deliberately stalking away from him and curling up on the other pillow. Vlad let a dull ghost ray light the room so he didn't have to fumble for the godforsaken phone. Who could _possibly_ be calling at this hour? He didn't allow any mayoral business on his private line, and—

The incessant ringing finally cut off as he answered with a growled, "Yes?"

"_Vlad, it's Jazz. Something's wrong with Danny."_

Vlad blinked and sat up straighter in bed, far more awake than he had been a moment ago. "Wrong?" he repeated. "What do you mean by wrong?" Except he already knew the answer. She was calling him. Daniel had _let_ her call him. This wasn't just a ghost thing; they thought it was a halfa thing.

"_He's…sick."_ She didn't sound very sure of herself. _"Fever, cough, rash…. I don't know. It's like he was fighting a cold for weeks, and then the rash started to appear, and tonight…. It just got worse. Fast."_

Vlad frowned. Ecto-acne hit hard and fast, but its symptoms were rather unmistakeable, and while he knew of a few ecto-diseases, he could hardly make an educated guess without looking at the little badger himself. "I'll be over shortly," he said. He'd have to drive; Jack and Maddie would wonder at his arrival otherwise. Well, Maddie would; her oaf of a husband was unlikely to think it odd if he turned up on their doorstep without an apparent means of transportation. "Let your parents know I'm coming."

"_Okay."_ Her voice was small. More than just worried, she was genuinely scared. _"Thanks."_

Vlad hung up the phone and absently reached over to pet Maddie. "It's unlikely the disease is transmissible to humans," he told her as she began purring. "The incubation period for most ecto-diseases is quite short, and I'm not aware of any exceptions that show those particular symptoms."

Maddie meowed and turned her head so he could scratch beneath the other side of her chin.

"Yes. Quite right. I'll take what precautions I can without arousing their suspicions. Whatever the cause, I'll certainly not be immune." He bent down to kiss her furry forehead and promised, "I'll be home as soon as I can."

* * *

Jazz knew she was hovering, but she couldn't help it. She wanted to know how Danny was doing. Her parents hadn't questioned her decision to call Vlad—they knew his fondness for Danny, if not the reasons behind it—and, if their murmured voices were any indication, they'd be glad of a second opinion.

They just didn't know how knowledgeable that second opinion would be.

When Jazz spotted headlights through the upstairs window, she bolted down the stairs to the front door. She opened it to find Vlad on the stoop with his hand raised to knock. He looked…uncomfortable. She wondered if it was from the middle-of-the-night phone call, but then he shivered and scratched at his arm.

Not unlike Danny had been doing for the past week.

"Are Jack and Maddie experimenting with anything new?" he asked quietly, not moving to come inside.

Jazz stepped out to join him and closed the door behind her. "Nothing beyond the usual. I try to keep a close eye on all of that, for Danny's sake."

Vlad let out a hiss. "There's…something here. Something familiar, but I don't…." He glanced down at her slippered feet, and she realized what he wanted.

"I'll grab my shoes," she said, ducking back inside to slip on her shoes and a coat. She closed the door behind her again, finished shrugging on the coat, and asked, "Where did you want to go?"

"Just farther from here," Vlad replied through gritted teeth, "so that I can think clearly."

"Mom and Dad will be too busy to notice anyway," Jazz said, leading the way at a quick clip. Vlad easily kept pace, and she began to fill him in on the details she hadn't over the phone, answering his questions as best she could.

To her knowledge, Jack and Maddie had yet to make even an exploratory trip to the Ghost Zone, always finding something on the Spectre Speeder that should first be improved to maximize safety. While they were still actively developing new weapons, their power source remained the same, and she wasn't aware of any experimental chemistry that might account for Danny's illness. Likewise, he'd never told her of fighting anyone new, and she had yet to receive responses from Sam and Tucker to confirm that belief.

For his part, Vlad didn't seem to think this was something spread from the other ghosts, at least not deliberately. "Biowarfare is hardly their style," he said dryly, "and none of them would dare try something like that without checking with me."

_None who follow your lead, anyway_, Jazz thought, but she didn't say it out loud. Vlad had enough ears to the ground that he would have heard if any ghost was plotting something along those lines. She may not be sure of the exact number on his payroll, so to speak, but it was high. "But if it's not something from the lab or something from the ghosts, what does that leave?"

Vlad stopped walking. "Nature."

Jazz frowned at him. "Nature?" she echoed. "Like…like the stories of salt and iron and stuff like that?"

Vlad snorted. "Please, nothing so mundane. Tell me, have either of your parents taken up gardening?"

Jazz stared at him. "No—?" It wasn't entirely true. Maddie always planted a small garden, just for show, and sometimes Jack would water or weed it, but most of the time, the flowers would be swallowed by invading grasses and other, faster-growing plants. The intended flowers never survived. She'd hardly call it gardening.

"Are you quite sure? There's a particular plant to which all ghosts are extremely sensitive. Blood blossoms. I've built up a modest immunity myself, providing I stay in this form. The blossoms themselves are the worst—their mere fragrance triggers the pain centres in the brain—but touching any part of the plant will burn, including pollen."

"So it's ghost poison?"

"In a matter of speaking, yes. Its leaves, latex, roots— Every part of it is harmful to ghosts, halfas included, no matter how small the dose or limited the exposure."

Jazz bit her lip. If the poison didn't even need to be ingested to have an effect, that made it more likely that Danny had been indirectly exposed. After all, if her parents had planted blood blossoms somewhere, she certainly wouldn't have noticed. Her plant-based knowledge was severely lacking, all things considered, and if she had seen it, she would have assumed it was just a normal plant. She'd never heard of any sort of ghost poison plant.

But if spores from the plant could be carried on the wind, or sap coating the leaves could linger on touched surfaces, or—

"They must have planted some," Vlad said. "It would explain the downturn in ghostly activity I've noticed in your neighbourhood, and it would certainly explain poor Daniel's worsening symptoms."

Jazz decided not to ask. After what Danny had told her, she wasn't entirely surprised to learn that Vlad kept the different sections of Amity Park under surveillance. "I'll talk to Mom and—"

"You can only tell them the source of Daniel's affliction," interrupted Vlad, "if you're ready to tell them everything on his behalf."

Jazz frowned. She knew Vlad didn't want her to say anything—for his sake more so than Danny's, no doubt—but he wasn't wrong, either. Still, Danny's health was more important to her than his secret. This wouldn't be the best way to reveal the truth, but if not knowing the truth meant Danny wasn't getting the care he needed—

"I'll convince them to put him in isolation, just in case," Jazz said. "That won't be hard. You can help them flush his system or whatever's needed to make sure Danny gets better. I'll deal with the plants." She'd have to do it in a way so her mother didn't know what happened—if Maddie realized the sabotage, she might try growing them again—but that wouldn't be terribly hard, either. Jazz knew exactly where the salt was kept, and she was more than willing to ruin a patch of earth or a pot or whatever these blood blossoms were growing in to save her little brother. "Now, tell me exactly what these things look like."

* * *

When Danny woke, his tongue was swollen, pressing against his teeth, and his mouth—throat—_everything_ was dry. He must have made some small sound, as Maddie appeared in his vision. She wore the same heavy-duty HAZMAT suit she had when Sam and Tucker had contracted Vlad's ecto-acne, and his heart sank.

He didn't need his sudden awareness of the various beeping machines or the hanging plastic sheets to tell him that he had been placed under quarantine.

"Only take a few slow sips, sweetie, until we know if you can handle it," Maddie warned as she passed him a cup of water with a straw.

He forced his mouth to close around the straw and sucked greedily, relishing in the glorious wetness of the drink until she took it away from him with a frown. "Slowly," she repeated, and for a moment he thought she was going to keep it, but she gave it back to him. This time, he obeyed her instructions.

"You'll need to drink plenty more, little badger," Vlad said behind him, and Danny jumped. He twisted around to glare, but Vlad ignored him, as per usual. "Moving you to a sterile environment seems to have helped, but you are hardly in top condition."

Danny scowled. "Did you just come here to tell me to drink fluids and get plenty of rest?"

Vlad raised his eyebrows, but Maddie was the one to speak, saying, "I know you aren't feeling well, honey, but please don't take that tone with Vlad. He's been working closely with us since you crashed, and his suggestions have resulted in some undeniable improvements."

"I'll bet," Danny muttered, but he knew he had no right to be upset. He had a vague memory of asking Jazz to call Vlad, after all. Louder, as much to please his mother as to assuage his conscience, he said, "Sorry, Mom. Sorry, Vlad. Thanks for helping me."

"You're most welcome, Daniel," came Vlad's reply, and Danny thought he was purposefully being irritating. "Now, as you said and as I'm sure your dear mother will agree, you should get plenty of fluids and rest. No, ah, _strenuous_ activities." Danny frowned, and Vlad added, "It's best to keep you here, isolated and in observation, until we're certain the danger has passed."

Isolated and in observation, huh? Danny could translate that easily enough. He couldn't use his powers without blowing his secret. Well, fine. He wasn't really eager to jump back into ghost fighting right now, anyway. Turning intangible had _hurt_, and he didn't want to repeat that experience.

Besides, he was feeling markedly better, so Vlad was probably on the level. Still a bit stuffed up, still a bit like his head was full of cotton, but the pain was gone.

And while he might not know what was in the IV that was connected to his arm, he could rest assured that it wouldn't kill him or Vlad would've intervened.

"It's a saline drip," Vlad said, seeing his glance.

If Vlad was going to tell him anything else, it wouldn't happen while Maddie was in the room. Danny nodded and looked over at his mom. "Can I get some more water, please?"

"Of course, sweetie," she said. "I'll be back in a moment. Vlad, why don't you help him get comfortable sitting up in the meantime?"

She didn't wait for an answer before leaving. Vlad also did not reach for the extra pillows Danny could very clearly see stacked in the corner of the room, but that was fine. Danny didn't really care about that anyway. "What was this?" he whispered.

"You, my dear boy, are the victim of blood blossoms."

Danny swallowed, remembering the pain they could bring. This had hurt, sure, but it wasn't anything like it had been back in Salem. "How? Mom and Dad don't use them, and you—"

"They may not use them yet, but someone—most likely your dear mother—planted some in a nice little window box outside of your kitchen. Jasmine assures me she's killed them in a way that will discourage your parents from replanting."

"Right," Danny said slowly. "But this wasn't…. This wasn't like blood blossoms."

Vlad snorted. "It may not be like your last encounter with them, but your sister showed me a picture of the plants so that I could confirm that they were, indeed, blood blossoms. I know exactly what they look like, Daniel, and clearly you'll need to educate yourself on that front, too."

"Are you seriously going to stand there and insult me when I'm in a makeshift hospital?"

Something in Vlad's expression softened. "Your symptoms may not have been bad yet, little badger, but make no mistake. It would have been far worse if more than a single plant had been in bloom. Your body was clearly trying to rid itself of every blood blossom particle it had encountered these past few weeks, and it failed, as it inevitably would."

Danny frowned. "Are you trying to tell me I'm allergic to blood blossoms?"

"An allergy is an understatement, my dear boy. Exposure to blood blossoms in high enough concentrations will not merely kill you; they'll destroy your essence."

Danny couldn't help but make a face at that. "Comforting. And you knowingly used them on me _why_, exactly?"

Vlad rolled his eyes. "I said they'd destroy you in high enough concentrations. It takes a much smaller dose to merely incapacitate you."

"Gee, thanks." He was going to say more, but he saw the door open and his mother come in, carrying a glass of water, and his father bounding in behind her.

"Danny-boy! You're awake!"

Danny laughed right up until the point his dad squeezed the breath from his body. "Yeah, Dad," he choked out. "I'm feeling a lot better."

Danny felt Vlad put some pillows behind him. "If you think you might be interested in a botany lesson, little badger, you'll have to come over to my place and borrow one of my books. I'm sure you'd find it most illuminating."

It took some effort not to make a face at that, too, but Vlad was trying to be helpful, and Danny was grateful for that. As long as he didn't want a mid-morph sample or for Danny to renounce his father in exchange, that was perfectly fine with him. He wouldn't mind learning something useful from the older halfa.

Besides, having a better knowledge of plants that could potentially destroy him would definitely be good. And even if the book Vlad had—assuming he actually had a book—was horrifically boring, Sam might find it interesting, and she could tell him the important bits.

"Thanks," Danny said, and this time he meant it. "That'd be great."

After all, if something useful was going to come out of this experience, he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.


End file.
